As my professional activities brought me to the west coast for the second time this summer, I thought it would be fun to describe another run, far away from the usual treks into the woods of Addison County. Life on the road in business hotels can seem like a blur of mini-bars, USA Todays (although those can be welcome from time to time!) and alarm clocks, so I always enjoy sneaking out for a run to explore whatever neighborhood I am holed up in! A few months ago, while in the San Diego area, I described a “Run to the Pacific” through the bike paths and streets of Coronado Island, while on this trip, I was in an even more heavily urbanized corner of Southern California, Orange County. My first thought was to make the Pacific Ocean in nearby Newport Beach the goal of this run as well, but balked at this target when I realized that it would be a longish run (12-14 miles, but I could live with that, right?) alongside very busy expressways, which of course made this possibility far less enticing. So, my next thought was to chat with the hotel concierge, and ask about more nearby sites of interest, and all they could suggest was the adjacent luxury shopping mall. No thanks! So, I took my GPS and set off towards interesting looking buildings and did my own exploration, without the slightest idea where I might end up.

The hotel itself was in a fairly compact area of high rise buildings with some pleasant park grounds to start off in. If it wasn’t for the plentiful palm trees, these buildings could have been anywhere modern and developed, although the perfect weather (72 and sunny!) was Southern California all the way. As it turns out, I was actually in an artsy section of Orange County, and there was an outdoor sculpture garden and performing arts center in this complex.

High Rise office Palm trees

Heading out past this steel and glass oasis, I headed down a broad boulevard, and was astonished to find myself running alongside an actual strawberry farm in the midst of this heavily populated area. In true California style, it was of course flanked by a series of highway overpasses, and even a few planes landing at the nearby “John Wayne” Airport.

Strawberry Fields Forever

Exemplifying once again how suddenly the nature of neighborhoods can change, even on a short easy run, I suddenly found myself in the midst of a very blue collar neighborhood, where all the modest homes of each block were ensconced behind stucco walls, and the sidewalks were devoid of pedestrians. This was perhaps a little unnerving, but I was comforted to hear the strains of a live mariachi band playing from behind one of the walls. I also had the pleasure of running alongside what qualifies as a river in this part of the world – an ugly concrete drainage with a little bit of muddy water and a lot of litter at the bottom.

Wild Orange County River

By this point, I could once again see my high rise hotel rising in the distance, and made a beeline for it, making for a slightly less than 5 mile run- not bad for a quick run after a conference, but before dinner. All in all, it was an interesting run, especially for someone like me who had never spent any time in the LA metropolitan area before. I couldn’t help but ponder the notion that this was how most of the rest of the runners in the country do their workouts. On the plus side, the weather out there is almost always perfect for running. While our winter months often make running difficult for much of the year, and I can imagine the heat of a Phoenix, Arizona, or Macon, Georgia afternoon might make things difficult in the summer months. Weather aside, the constant stop and go at road crossings can also be maddening when running in urban settings – it often felt like I had to stop and wait for a light to turn every time I was getting into a rhythm. So, while this run had its novelties, I came away from this trip feeling lucky for the great running options which we have back in Vermont! The Google Earth projection of this run looks very different from my Vermont runs – note the expressways and high density of buildings!